Tainted Report

So I finally got my hands on Madworld, the widely anticipated game from Sega, and, more importantly, Platinum Games. This game is gritty, it's stylized, and it's laugh-out-loud funny at some points. But is it fun?

Yes... and no. I've played the game for about an hour now, and I've enjoyed it thus far. The controls work well; basic attacks are mapped to the A button, and you wield the chainsaw using the B button. To swing the chainsaw, you need to flick the Wii Remote. It works surprisingly well, actually. The motion controls don't seem gimmicky really.

Beating up the baddies is definitely enjoyable, especially with all the variety. You can pick up tires and throw them over someone so they can't use their arms. You can thrust a sign post through someone's head and skewer them. There are even some environmental deaths, like throwing someone in the path of an oncoming train or throwing someone into a fan.

But as fun as all that is, the one gripe I have with the game is that the enemies are painfully dumb. If I am beating up one baddy, the others are standing around, waiting their turn. They might get one punch in occasionally, but for the most part it's just me decimating the whole crowd of enemies. Boss battles are a huge challenge, but the other enemies are quite dumb.

I've just barely gotten into the game though, and I'm having a lot of fun with it. I am hoping to get a good review written when I'm done, but I've said that with a few games and never finished them. And even though I have a few gripes thus far, I still recommend this game. It's got an awesome art style, and the script is phenomenal.